Saturday, October 4, 2014

How attending the Morongo Thunder and Lightening
Pow-Wow scared me into giving up fried foods for the rest of my life.

My goal in attending the Morongo Thunder and
Lightening Intertribal Pow-Wow was simple. I planned to take my curious three
year old daughter in an attempt to help her explore cultural celebration and
ritual. I’ve always been intrigued by different cultures and that curiosity is
something I’d hoped would be passed down to my children. What I observed was
not just the majestic beauty of the culture but instead, the dire need for a complete health
makeover for these amazing people.

When we arrived at Morongo, parking was free and
easily accessible. Morongo had four of its very large reservation police men
directing traffic. It was my first glance at the promising experience and
observations that lay ahead.

Upon entering the event, which meant walking into a
headwind of about 40 mph, we were greeted with the not so glorious smell of
reused cooking oil and the melodic sounds of small costume bells as some of the
dancers gated by in full dress. The costumes themes ranged from basic and bright
to remarkable and ornate. Booths were still setting up as it was 11am and very
windy. I assumed that the late start was because the crowds weren’t expected
until afternoon into evening when the dance contests were planned. People were
barely floating around when we passed the makeshift eating and that is where I got my
first glimpse of a young native man indulging on Indian fry bread. He was no
more than 15 years old and he had to have weighed somewhere between 270-300 lbs.
I was stricken first with shock and then concern. As I looked around I began to
notice that there were more, many, many more, just like him; young and old,
very unhealthy, tossing back coca cola, eating the Indian fry bread like a taco
as the sweet and savory fillings oozed out onto their ribbed paper plates. My
stomach began to turn and my heart literally began to sink.

How can such beautiful people become so
unhealthy? Why are these amazing people suffering so? What’s influencing them? Are
they dying young? I had so many questions.

These questions flooded my mind and as we filtered
into the bleachers to watch the entrance of the Coat of Arms I had a hard time
refocusing onto the beauty of the ceremony itself. Over the next hour as I
watched large, larger and extra larger people enter into the dance event area,
my mind grew painfully distraught. My thoughts only subsided as we sat, in awe,
enjoying the entrance of all the dancers at the opening ceremonies. The exquisite
feather bustles grabbed our eyes like archery targets and the deep thud of the
ceremony drums lulled us into vibrating trances.

Around 2:30pm, we ventured out to explore the vendor
booths in an attempt to find a keepsake for my daughter. As we walked around
the event grounds my mind drifted again to the health and diet influences of
this self governing nation. Unhealthy people were everywhere. Overweight children
were suffering to walk around in full costume dress. Sweat was dripping down
their innocent little chubby faces and they had coca colas in their hands to
ease the discomfort. All around us were Indian fry bread stands toting their
Indian fry bread tacos, Indian fry bread deserts, fried tacos, greasy ground
beef and extra large, sugar filled, fruit punch ice cooler drinks. I was
flabbergasted once again.

In an effort to refocus, I took my daughter to a
booth where there were a lot of small feathered toys, trinkets and the standard
“Navajo” jewelry I’d seen many times on roadside stands along Arizona highways.
The woman running the booth told me she made the goods by hand cutting the
tanned dear skin. I’m a consumer of handmade goods so I bought into her sales pitch.
I bought my daughter and I two natural colored friendship feather clips for our
hair and a small flute with purple feathers tied onto the end. Buying these
small enjoyable keepsakes was much needed after the morning experiences.

It’s no surprise that this culture has become so Americanized;
so overweight. Native peoples had everything, including their lifestyles and eating habits
taken from them hundreds of years ago when they were forced to restructure
themselves to survive in the New World. Genes mutate, people grow larger and processed,
fried foods help them stay that way. The Native history of waning health is
nothing new but it seems that it’s only getting worse in this case. According to the CDC statistics of overweight and obese Native Americans, 78.1 percent of men and 65.1 percent of women in this minority were considered obese in 2012. (Health Behaviors of Adults: United states, 2008-2010. Table 6.1.) Is this because these people
don’t have the educational resources readily available or is it that they don’t have
access to healthy foods? I don’t know, but I sure hope someone is working for
change so that these people can continue to flourish and share their cultures abundant
beauty with more three year olds.

By the way, that flute I bought; it only played one
note but my kid sure didn’t mind. She played that one note the entire 45 minute
ride home while complaining about having something (the feather clip) stuck in
her hair.